1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to classifying network activity and particularly to systems, methods and computer products for profile-based identity verification over the Internet.
2. Description of Background
Individuals all over the world interact with the Internet through different types of activities (e.g., applications, protocols, services). The behavioral dynamics of an individual in a particular Internet activity environment may be significantly different from other individuals. Each Internet activity can be characterized by a set of attributes that can be used to define features of the behavior of an individual while interacting with Internet through that activity. For example, attributes associated with Email can be: the community of the persons to which emails are normally sent; the time stamp of the emails; the length of emails; the type of attachments (doc/ppt/mpeg...); the subject of emails; the topic generally discussed; and the keywords normally used by a person (e.g., each person has his own set of vocabulary from which they normally choose words to write in emails). Furthermore, those attributes associated with Chat can be: the type of chat community a person joins; the language used in chat environments; the occurrence rate of chat messages; the amount of time a user poises between sending messages; the length of chat messages in terms of number of words; the type of community according to the time of the day; the reaction time to messages from others; the amount of time a person spends in particular chat community; and the number of concurrent chat sessions an individual participates.
Every individual has a certain personality that is a complex manifestation of the social, political, economical and educational background in which he was brought up and in which he currently resides. The word “personality” here is a broad term including an individual's intelligence level, creativity, vocabulary, interests, linguistic skills, psychological traits, experience with using computer applications, mannerisms. This personality is reflected in his day-to-day interactions with others, in his thinking, and hence in his actions in different environments and in different situations. An individual's personality also has a crucial affect on his behavior over Internet. In particular, this personality can be reflected in the values of the different internet-activity specific attributes for the individual.